Chapter 13: Standing Out

At the mall, the first store Paulina spotted was Glamour Girls. That store specialized in fancy dresses, which pleased Paulina greatly.

Cecelia, Valerie, and Sam looked around the store. Pink and red walls dotted with rhinestones and mirrors and chic pop art. Definitely more along the lines of Paulina and Cecelia's style rather than Sam or Valerie. But Valerie didn't seem to mind.

Cecelia had always wanted to wear a bright red dress but she couldn't find a good one yet. Paulina spotted a pretty dress with sparkles at the top and three different shades of pink. It poofed out right at the bottom of the waist, thereby complementing Paulina's body shape. She found one in her size and then went to look for a pair of matching gloves.

Valerie browsed through half the store before she found the right style of dress that would go with her body shape. It was yellow. And she also found an orange flower that went with it well.

Sam looked at all of the black dresses, but none of them were what she was looking for. She eventually just gave up altogether and went over to Cecelia to see what she found.

Cecelia was browsing in the evening-dress section, but she hadn't found anything she liked yet. "Sam, where do you usually go to get a dress?" Cecelia asked her.

"I don't usually buy dresses, but I do know a cool place." Cecelia followed Sam to a store that was only a few down. "Club Goth." Sam took Cecelia into the store. This wasn't Cecelia's idea of fashion. Everything was black and other dark colors. There was hard, rocky music playing.

Cecelia didn't like this at all, but she wanted to support her friend.

Sam had her eyes fixed on a short black dress with purple lace at the bottom and the sleeves were made of black netting. "$104.80." Sam said it as if she was glad it was that cheap. She noticed Cecelia just standing around. "Feel free to go and check something out."

"I don't know how to say this, but I'm not exactly into the goth…" Cecelia looked around and then she saw this dress—this one perfect dress—that was made of black silk and it had a cool red belt on it. "It's perfect!" Cecelia ran to the dress, but she couldn't find one in a size nine. The biggest they went to was size four. "You've gotta be kidding me."

Cecelia looked at the other dresses, but they didn't look appealing. Sam tried on her dress and it looked great on her. Cecelia and Sam waited in line and then Sam paid for her dress with her credit card.

"Are you sure you don't have anything you want?" Sam looked at her.

Cecelia shook her head. The two of them made their way back to the other store where Paulina and Valerie were just finishing up.
Paulina looked at Valerie. "Now I know where I've seen that dress before! Star has the same one! She bought it three weeks ago! Isn't that great?"

"Great." Valerie was annoyed that Star would be wearing the same dress as her at homecoming. "Why couldn't you tell me that before I bought it?"

"Because I just remembered, silly." Paulina said in her cheerful voice.

Valerie, Cecelia, and Paulina got into Paulina's car again.

"Aren't you coming, Sam?" Cecelia asked.

"No. I'd…rather walk home." Sam said.

Paulina drove away. "I'm so happy now that we've all got our dresses. I can't wait to get all prettied up!"

"I'll say." Valerie said. "What about you, Cecelia?"

Cecelia looked away. "It's going to be a surprise—what I wear to the dance." Cecelia said with unsurity.

"Cool!" Paulina said.

Valerie gave Cecelia a peculiar stare and then turned back around.

Paulina dropped her two friends off at Valerie's house so that they could do their martial arts practice.

"The crowd is going wild. Who will be the winner? Will it be the Casper High Eagles or the Downtown City Chargers?" A brown-eyed announcer man said from his booth.

It was two in the afternoon. Around the football field, Valerie, Cecelia, Paulina and the other cheerleaders gathered around the bleachers and took their seats because the homecoming game was about to start.

The cheerleaders had just finished their routine and the girls were tired. They were also anxious to get into their dresses and some of them went into the bathrooms to start fixing their hair. Among those who did not go were Cecelia and Valerie.

"You should go straighten your hair, Valerie." Cecelia insisted.

Valerie shook her head. "Nah. Look at my hair! It's a mess! I wouldn't even know where to begin!"

Cecelia stood up and yanked Valerie right out of her seat and Valerie resisted all the way to the bathroom. Cecelia found somebody's hair straightener and began working on Valerie's hair.

"What are you doing?" Valerie asked her friend.

"If you're not going to do it then I am. Your hair always looks the same and I think a different hairstyle would be good for you. I'm sure Danny would love it."

Valerie knew that Cecelia was just as stubborn as she was and thus she would not get anywhere by fighting her. So Valerie gave in.

"You're good at this, I assume?"

"It can't be that hard."

"How many times have you straightened hair?"

"Um…"

Cecelia had to crank up the temperature to do Valerie's hair just right. It took around forty minutes to straighten it. Then Cecelia clipped the big orange feather flower into Valerie's thick black hair. Cecelia handed Valerie a mirror and said, "All done!"

"Wow." Valerie smiled at her long, straight, shiny hair. "I look snappy." She turned back to Cecelia. "This is pretty good for your first time straightening hair. It's a little bit singed though, at the ends. And your hair…"

"Ohhh, no you're not." It was as if Cecelia could read Valerie's mind.

"Ohhh yes I am. You're getting curls from your ears down to your waist."

It was Cecelia's turn to pull up a chair while Valerie used a curling iron to put some stylish wave into Cecelia's hair. This only took about fifteen minutes. And then Valerie put on her dress and started to apply her makeup.

Cecelia stared at her reflection. She had never seen her hair with more than just the one curl it had on its ends. "Not bad." She said to herself. She noticed a fully-dressed Paulina standing next to her.

"Now's probably the time you want to get dressed." Paulina said. Paulina was dressed from head to toes in pink and white debutant styles with lovely eye shadow and mascara and lipstick and the works. She even had pink high heels, though they didn't show because her dress was so long that it touched the ground. Paulina walked out to show off her pampered and attractive self.

Cecelia looked down at her red and white cheerleading outfit. "Yeesh. I do have to change." She quickly jotted down to her locker to get her outfit and then jotted back to the bathroom to take a stall.

A few minutes later, Cecelia walked out wearing a pair of baggy grey sweats and an old dark blue tee shirt. She then put on her makeup just like the normal girls did. Although, Cecelia saw out of the corner of her eye that some other girls were giving her strange glances. But Cecelia only smiled.

It was Star who was especially appalled. "Wow, Cecelia. I'd never have known it was you. On top, you're all pretty, but your clothes are just…boyish today."

Cecelia took that as a complement. "Thanks." She walked over to Valerie.

"Whoa, there, girl. You need to get dressed. The game's going to be over soon and the dance will begin shortly." Valerie informed.

"I am dressed." Cecelia smiled proudly.

Valerie rolled her eyes. "You would do something like this." Valerie's yellow dress was very tight and did not look nearly as good on her as it did on Star.

"Shall we go see if our dates are here?" Cecelia held the door open so that she and her friend could exit the bathroom.

"We should probably get Sam first."

"No, she told me yesterday that she was at your boyfriend's house."

"Why? Oh that's right, they're all there."

Cecelia shrugged. She and Valerie watched the football game from outside the window.

"Just so you know, we always lose. Year after year, failure after failure. It's boring, really." Valerie said hopelessly.

"Well, yeah, with that attitude you're not going to win anything." Cecelia looked up at the scoreboard. The Chargers were creaming the Casper High Eagles five to nothing.

The two girls noticed Kwan making a pass to Dash from across the field.

"Will he catch it? Will he catch it?" The announcer asked the crowd. "Oh, no! Dash Baxter has dropped the ball and it's back in the hands of the Chargers."

Cecelia and Valerie found themselves cheering for their team.

"Hey wait a minute. We're cheerleaders. I feel like we should be out there." Cecelia said.

"I'm not going out like this! There's mud! And besides, we were dismissed to go get ready." Valerie crossed her arms.

"Oh come on! Have a little fun, won't cha?" Cecelia nagged.

"No." Valerie said stubbornly.

"Fine." Cecelia walked away.

"Where are you going?" Valerie yelled down the hall.

"I'm going to have some fun!" Cecelia yelled back as she opened the door. She went outside to the first row of bleachers and cheered her head off.

When Valerie saw her friend standing out there, she was proud in a weird way. Deep down, Valerie was too afraid of what people would think of her to go out and do something like that. normally, Valerie was fearless, but even she had a fear of rejection just like everybody else. She made up her mind not to go out. And then came the rain.

Cecelia and all the other fans got doused with rainwater, but it didn't seem like they cared. Cecelia didn't even notice. Her hair lost its curl and her makeup was washed away and she brushed the last of it onto her sleeve. She let the rain wash it off.

"With eight seconds left on the clock, is it possible for Dash Baxter to run all the way across the field? Three…two…Touchdown! Dash is our hero! With that, the Casper High Eagles take the cake with a final score of seven to five!" the announcer said with excitement.

"Wohoo!" Cecelia cheered for her team. She went back inside to wear Valerie had been standing the whole time. Cecelia smiled.

"You're a crazy one, aren't you?" Valerie gave Cecelia a fist pound.

"Yup." Cecelia wrung her hair. She was drenched head to toe but she didn't mind. Her Converse shoes were covered with mud, but it didn't bother her either.

"Let's go find our dates." Valerie said. She and Cecelia spotted Danny, Tucker, Sam, and Garth all entering the building over at the front door.

Cecelia took a good look at them all. Tucker's suit was a dark green. Danny's was blue. Garth's was navy blue and it looked like it was small on him, so it probably belonged to Danny or Tucker. Sam was wearing that cute gothic dress she had found with the lace and the netting. She even had her hair up in pigtails and she was wearing purple eye shadow.

"Wow, you look so nice, Sam!" Cecelia didn't think Sam would clean up that well.

"Thanks. You look…very original." Sam approved. "I'm glad you decided to take my advice and stand out."

Cecelia chuckled. And then she looked at her date, Tucker, who looked a little queasy.

"You're not an all-out hot cheerleader Barbie doll, are you?" Tucker didn't think Cecelia was so attractive anymore.

"I am, just in a different way. Not the way you might think." Cecelia said with pride.

Danny and Valerie joined hands. "Hi." They said in unison.

"Let's dance." Valerie suggested.

"Okay." Danny and Valerie went into the gymnasium, which was where the party was.

"So…what do you want to do?" Sam asked Garth.

This was really awkward, since Garth didn't know her that well. "I dunno, I'm a horrible dancer."

Sam laughed. This might have been the first time Cecelia and Garth had seen Sam release a genuinely happy emotion. "Just follow me." Sam pulled her date along into the hallway.

That left Cecelia and Tucker.

"I'm not exactly what you expected, am I?" Cecelia asked the nerdy boy.

Tucker shook his head vigorously.

"Do you want to call off the date?"

Tucker nodded happily.

Cecelia was relieved that Tucker only liked her as a friend now. "Okay then." The two of them walked into the gymnasium.

Paulina was dancing with Dash. Star was dancing with Kwan. Valerie and Danny were…sorta dancing. Even Tucker was having fun. Cecelia took a glass of purple raspberry punch and looked around the gymnasium at all the decorations. There was even a banner and everything. The banner looked like it was made in the eighties.

All the girls looked lovely and their men looked so handsome. Cecelia looked in a mirror and chuckled sadly at herself. "I don't really belong here." She said. She went to the bathroom and gathered her things. It wasn't long before she headed home. "At least it stopped raining." The sky was turning into a happy pale blue.

Something whooshed overhead, blocking the sun temporarily. Cecelia looked up and gasped at what she saw. A brown dragon was holding Sam. And she was screaming.

Cecelia's eyebrows got all thin and straight and she glared at the ghost dragon. She reached to activate her suit but then remembered she didn't have it. She didn't know what to do. As if by luck, the ghost and Sam landed on top of the school building.

Cecelia shook her head in disgust at the ghost. "Hang on, Sam, I'll save you." Cecelia determined. She ran back into the school and threw her bag into the hall.

During her mad rush up the stairs, she realized she didn't have anything to fight the dragon with. She'd have to kick some butt the old-fashioned way.

Cecelia climbed up a ladder to the attic and then opened a wooden hatch which led to the roof.

Over by the very edge was the dragon holding Sam. "Oh no! He's going to push her off!" Cecelia worried to herself.

She ran up to the dragon in a vivacious charge.

"Let my friend go!" She punched the dragon and kicked him as hard as he could. He became airborne and set Sam down gently and then made his disappearance.

"What did you just do?" Sam asked in a confused tone of voice.

"I saved your life from being wasted by that dragon!"

Sam was still puzzled.

"I heard you screaming as he pulled you along through the air. And then I saw him almost drop you over the edge here. If I hadn't stopped him, you would have been a gonner."

Sam caught on pretty quickly. "Right, thank you." Sam walked past Cecelia and went back down into the school.

"Hmm." Cecelia said to herself "Something's not right. If that were me, I'd be a little more scared." Cecelia looked under the hatch that she came from. "And how did she know the way down?"

Just then, a shadow fell over Cecelia. She turned around and there was the dragon floating there with his arms crossed and he was glaring at her. He snorted and smoke came out of his nostrils.

"What do you want?" Cecelia assumed a defensive pose and looked at the ghost fearlessly. Though, it wouldn't do much good as she was powerless and he could crush her like a fly within seconds, or roast her like a marshmallow.

"What do you want?" The dragon questioned back with a booming voice, but a rather mild attitude.

"I want you to go away and leave my friends alone! Why do you ghosts haunt this town anyways? Do you really have nothing better to do than to make the human world miserable?" Cecelia's adrenaline was staring to fade and she began to see the full foolishness of what she was doing.

The dragon chuckled. "Wow, have you got it backwards! Not that you'd believe me, but I'll try anyways. I don't haunt, I hunt."

"A ghost who hunts ghosts. That doesn't make much sense, now does it?" Cecelia glowered at the ghost. "Quit playing games with me, or I'll defeat you right here and now." She hoped and prayed that he couldn't tell she was bluffing.

The dragon relaxed and gave her a cocky smile. "It seems to me that you have nothing to fight with except your bare hands and feet. I'll remind you that I have fire, a tail, and I'm twelve times bigger than you."

Cecelia sneered at him.

"Anyways, I didn't come back to fight you. I'm here to tell you that I'm not the bad guy. I hunt ghosts just like you do and I'm part of a team. I'm the good guy. And I think we could be on the same side if you'd just keep your mind open and stop being prejudiced against ghosts. Not all ghosts are evil, don't you know."